Online learning is slowly but surely taking over traditional learning methods. Where does India stand in e-learning?

The whole world is heading towards digital education or online learning.

Online learning has widened the scope of education and transcended it beyond classroom boundaries. India is witnessing a digital revolution with new 500 million users set to join the bandwagon of the internet revolution.

Right now, there are 370 million internet users in India, pointing towards India’s enormous potential as a huge market for e-learning.

According to a report by KPMG, the Indian online education industry will register a 6X growth in 2021. From 1.6 million users in 2016, it will grow to 9.6 million users by 2021. It will also be worth $1.96 billion.

Is online learning replacing traditional learning methods?

E-learning opens a Pandora box of resources in front of both students and teachers, the access to which they wouldn’t have had earlier irrespective of their status and location.

Projections show that the e-learning market worldwide is forecast to surpass 243 billion US dollars by 2022. It clearly shows that e-learning has become a global trend, and more and more people are preferring it over traditional classrooms.

Favorable government initiatives for digital reform

The government of India has taken some strong steps to push for digital reform in the country. It is a strong supporter of e-learning.

As per the website of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India, the government has been financially supporting R&D projects in the area of E-Learning at various academic educational institutes.

The programmes supported by the government include content, R&D technology initiatives, human resource development projects, and faculty training initiatives to promote skill-based learning and create job-ready people for the industries.

How corporate and educational institutes are shifting to online learning

Internet boom has been a major catalyst for the growth of online learning and with more than 500 million new internet users, the boost for online learning will only better itself.

E-learning is aggressively making inroads into the Indian education ecosystem and its impact is not limited to schools and institutes of higher education.

Indian companies are also taking initiatives to promote e-learning as constant upskilling of employees has become crucial to their growth in today’s times. Competencies are changing every 4-5 years, and in order to stay relevant, one needs to upgrade one’s skills from time to time.

The number of jobs involving routine skills -- both physical and cognitive -- is shrinking, and with increasing automation, newer opportunities are being created every day.

Co-branded courses with corporates and educational institutes having live industry projects, real-time mentoring and peer to peer interactions on an online platform, with an exposure to connect with anyone across the globe interested in a same skill set is another main reason to help online learning score a brownie point over traditional learning which limits one to brick and mortar, or to a particular location and city.

Who would have imagined 15 years ago that a student of a remote town in India can learn from a Harvard professor sitting in his room, or an experienced professional working in the United States could be mentoring a professional working in a tier 2 city of India for an industry project?

Online learning addresses affordability, ease and accessibility

Online classes can easily be adjusted with your already existing work and family commitments. Secondly, online learning has a pretty low turnaround time. You can learn many skills in a short span of time.

Also, skills like artificial intelligence, machine learning, data science with python, are in demand in India, but the courses are not accessible to a lot of students owing to many constraints -- geographical or financial or both.

E-learning has made it easier for students from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities to learn industry-specific skills and find a high paying job. In addition to it, the cost of a degree in a traditional college is higher than the one-time cost attached, and you can take up online courses from the comfort of your home.

Disrupting traditional classrooms

E-learning focuses on quantitative outcomes -- it aims at making people employable through industry-oriented skill up programmes and is an effective tool to fill the demand-supply gap in the Indian industries. It is a revolution in the making.

Online learning is hence, steadily disrupting the hackneyed chalk and talk’ education system in India because of the immense benefits it has to offer.